March of the Penguin

  

Today, I will be going to identify the feature of a documentary that found on this film, March Of The Penguins.

Documentary

What audiences think of documentaries? Audiences assumed that the filmed events or incidents are not staged hence providing a realistic look. This is because of the mise-en-scene that present in the film. In additional, documentaries are non-fiction films, thus non-fiction film is not based on imaginations but real events. Documentary filmmakers are also assumed to observe the events and make an objective record of the events. In these times, the mentioned assumptions have been criticized. This cause the selection of techniques, equipment, footage, camera angles and other techniques which made by the filmmakers, and then losing the objective appeal. As recommended by Bill Nichols there is a way for us to look at documentary via their specific techniques that are selected by the filmmakers. Six modes of representation are the way they represent the documentary by Bill Nichols, there are includes the poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative.

Theory Discussion

          1. Poetic

As quoted by Bill Nichols the poetic mode opens up new alternative forms on use to transfer information as compared to the straightforward method. This mode stresses mode, tone and it affects much more than the displays of information or acts of persuasion. These poetic documentaries began in modernism era and it presents reality through a series of fragmented visual, subjective impressions, incoherent act and loose associations.

      2.  Expository

This mode attempt to disclose information about the historical world itself and to see that world afresh by using Voice-of-God commentary and poetic perspectives.  This mode address audience directly, providing visible information in the imagery and unseen information in the voiceover. The objective is to provide information transparently. These aimed at being descriptive and informative to the audiences, thus they can understand what the movie is talking about.

          3. Observational

This mode has no apparent intervention by the filmmaker in the filmed events. Films to observe and record as the events unfold in real time, resulting in long takes and sound and exact light is recorded directly, establishing an intimate relationship with and a sense of the environment without manipulating and distorting the event, thus they're no dramatic or unusual moments. The overall effect is a neutral and non-judgmental appeal. For example: Place the camera on the wall to capture everything without edit like a security camera.

Analysis

The poetic mode of representation could be seen in the March of the penguins where the narrator describes the scene as the penguins in the fascinating mating ritual as the views recorded by the camera came to the close-up scene of penguin’s body and follow to the body curve of the penguin instead of shooting the process of mating ritual. Reason being to bring out the stresses on the mood, tone of romantic. March of the penguin documentary practiced the voice of God form of expository representation during the entire film. This voice-over is expressed the "thoughts" of the penguins and being informative to the audiences so the audience can understand what is going on to the penguin. Furthermore, the narrator was giving a kind of poem feels when he described what is happening in the film. This is because filmmakers want to attract the attention of audiences when watching documentary type films. To provide an authentic look, the film applied with the third method of the representation which was observational, the color of the film is kept in the original ones of Antarctica. In addition, the filmmakers did not interfere or manipulate the lifecycle of the penguin when the duck attack the baby penguin. The other scene would be when a female penguin had lost its chick in the battle against the cold wind. The chick lay dead on the ice ground and filmmakers did not attempt to bring it back to life knowing that this will distort the truth.

Synopsis

March of the penguin is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed by Luc Jacquet. It documents the emperor penguins of the South Pole journey to their traditional breeding grounds. The journey across frozen tundra proves to be the simplest part of the ritual, the penguin parent have to take turn to take care of their egg after the egg is hatched, the female must delicately transfer it to the male and make her way back to the distant sea to nourish herself and bring back food to her newborn chick. In this moment, the male penguins work together to protect one another and at the same protecting the egg from the extreme cold and keep the egg warmth, and incubate their eggs.

Conclusion

The conclusion, According to the research it is without doubt that the March of the penguins is a documentary film. This is proved because the film was using the way of representing the Documentary, there is the poetic, observational and expository mode of representation. Be honestly, the techniques of this documentary film had taught me a lot of new way to present a film and what need to be concern when doing the documentary film.